


Standard Protocol

by HappyEight



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, M/M, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-23
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-11-16 22:32:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/544562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyEight/pseuds/HappyEight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Argent Research Labs is world renowned for their contributions to advancement in almost every field imaginable. Stiles has a good life working as an Advance Research Tech. All it takes is one downed server and Stiles life is turned on its head as he comes to learn that there is more going on at Argent Research than he ever would have imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Server Goes Down

**Author's Note:**

> More warnings, pairings, tags, ect will be added as the story develops.  
> Also this is unbeta'd so apologies for any of my grievous spelling or grammatical errors.

Right out of college Stiles was hired as a researcher intern for Argent Research Network. ARN was only a small branch of the Argent corporation which was one of those businesses that seemed to have it’s fingers in all of the pies. They had branched into everything from Agricultural Engineering to Nanotechnology. They had offered him a good deal, a paid internship that had a good chance for promotion if they liked his work.

Stiles was good at research and hey had most definitely liked his work. He’d quickly moved up the ranks from lowly research intern getting only a small stipend to an Advanced Research Tech wich came with a sizable salary and a nice holiday bonus. Most of the people he worked with were five or more years older than him but he really was good at his job and Stiles always had been a people person so there was little trouble from his co-workers once they realized that he really did belong on the Advanced Research team.

The fact that Stiles was a people person made his life much easier than it could have been. He may have a motor mouth that could drive even the most patient people up the wall, but Stiles was just an agreeable person. Also, he’d stopped taking offence to people telling him to shut up when he rattled on for too long. It was one of the things he actually told people to do if he was starting to annoy them. He’d rather be cut off than be a nuisance. 

One of the best parts about being on the Advanced Research team was that his restrictions were practically non existent. He had access to most of the building if he needed it and unlike the lower research teams who were only allowed in the labs from seven am to seven pm, he had 24/7 hour access to not only the AR labs but the building itself. The worst part about being hired on as a intern level researcher had been his hour restrictions. Stiles was a night owl and did most of his best work long after the sun had set.

He also had the bonus of access to the Advance Research lab of course. Which meant better computers, more working space, and they even had their own separate kitchen/lounge area. It was a huge step up from the stuffy cubicle closet that they stuck the interns in. The computers they gave the interns also seemed to be relics of the 90’s even if they claimed to be running on operating systems from 08’. AT this point though the computers were still almost a decade out of date. Stiles’ laptop was a better computer and he’d had it since his last year of high school.

The night that would send Stiles’ life unknowingly into an tailspin started as so many nights before had. Stiles was sitting in the AR lab tapping his toes along to the music that was streaming through his computer and working on research. 

His current project was wolves. Everything about wolves. His desk and work table were filled with stacks of books, print outs, pictures, maps, and hundreds of pieces of paper. There was even a wolf skull sitting next to his computer desk that he’d dug up from the archives. Why there had been a wolf skull down in the archives he wasn’t sure but it wasn’t the first time he’d found something down there that made him wonder why on earth someone had thought it would be a good idea to catalogue it.

He’d found research on everything from Arctic wolves to Red wolves and everything in between. Just about everything Mankind had ever found out about wolves was sitting in some form or another in the AR lab at the moment. Stiles had books on anatomy, census reports, pack territories, breeding habits, records of all wolves in zoos and more information about wolves then he ever thought he would know. He even had a separate smaller table holding a good deal of information about werewolves because Stiles was nothing if not thorough. When the people downstairs said they wanted everything about a certain subject, Stiles had come to learn, they really did mean everything.

His job was to compile all of the information he’d found into the research database for the guys down in the science labs to do with it whatever the folks down in the science labs did with all of the AR research. The whole operation had a secret spy organization feel to it, but Stiles was pretty sure that there wasn’t anything exceptionally mind blowing going on down in the science labs. He liked to dream though.

It was three in the morning when Stiles finally finished typing up and scanning in all of the document’s he’d been able to find. It had been a three month process from start to finish and frankly Stiles was more than a little sick of spending all of his waking time thinking about wolves. There was a lot of information on wolves out there. Not to mention he’d spend almost two whole weeks finding information on werewolves alone and he wasn’t even sure that was information that was going to be useful to anyone besides a cryptozoologist. He doubted there were any cryptozoologist hired on to the company team.

Three am had come and past when Stiles finished transferring the rest of the database and found with dismay that the servers were down.

He groaned and leaned back in his chair. Of course this would happen in the middle of the night. There were no tech guys around this late and while Stiles was as tech savvy as they come, he didn’t have access to the tech department if there wasn’t anyone around. Standard protocol was fucking him in the ass.

Stiles contemplated his choices. He could -- and this was probably the best choice -- wait until tomorrow and come in early to finish uploading the files, or he could transfer the files onto a flash drive and deliver them downstair in the drop box. He really did not want to come into early tomorrow morning to transfer those files, especially considering he’d been up for 36 hours already. Coffee and energy drinks were wondrous things for getting large amounts of work done but made it impossible for Stiles to have any kind of normal sleeping schedule.

It was with determination that Stiles loaded the rest of the files onto a flash drive and scrawled a note explaining why he was delivering a flash drive instead of just doing the work himself. His compatriots down in the science lab were a busy bunch and wouldn’t take kindly to additional work, especially if it was something he should be doing but Stiles was on good terms with them he was pretty sure they wouldn’t mind this. It was just going to be a plug and go for them once the network was back up. Easy peasy.

He slid the key card into the the lock for the science labs and punched his key code in. The door hissed open and Stiles couldn’t help but grin. It sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie. The doors to the science lab was the only one that did it and Stiles was more than a little jealous. One of these days he was going to find out how it worked and see if they could get the AR lab doors to do the same thing.

He was going to leave the drive in the drop box when he noticed that there was a light on down the hall. Half going to hand the drive off to a real person(for security sake) and half because, well, he was curious to know who else was as much of a night owl as him. Not many people liked to work until 3 in the morning.

It was a woman hunched over a computer rubbing her face and looking more than a little frustrated.  She was young. If she was older than him it wouldn't be by much. It made sense though that it was somone younger huddled in their office in the middle of the night. Most of the older works had no problem with clocking out at a reasonable time to get home to their families and be in bed by a reasonable time.

“Knock. Knock.” Stiles said simultaneously knocking on the door frame.

The woman jumped and jerked backwards away from her computer. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Stiles apologized.

“No, no it’s okay, you just startled me. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone else in here this late at night.” The woman gave him a tired smile. A moment went by and her smile tilted into a contemplative frown. “You’re not a Science Tech are you. I’ve seen you before though.”

“AR.” Stiles explained with a shrug.

“Ah, that’s right, I remember now.  But what are you doing down here this late?”

“I was finishing the project that I’ve been working on for almost three months now. I like working late at night, I think better. But I went to go upload the files to the server and the server went down before i finished. I’ve been awake for oh, 36 hours now and I didn’t want to come in in the morning to finish uploading the files. Really I think I’m just going to sleep for like 24 hours.” Stiles explained.

“How much caffeine have you had?” The woman, Stiles realized he didn’t know her name, asked with tenting her hands in front of her and looking at Stiles seriously but there was something light hearted about the way she said it like she was teasing him.

“Uh, I just had a 12th Red Bull 20 minutes ago.” Stiles offered with a blush.

“Uh-huh. So...”She trailed off, likely realizing that she didn’t know Stiles name either.

“Stiles.”

“Allison. So, Stiles, what brings you down here tonight.” She repeated. Stiles opened his mouth to start talking. “The main point, hun.”

“Sorry, I’ve got a bit of a motor mouth problem.” Stiles explained sheepishly.

“I noticed.” Allison said with a small smile.

“I uploaded the files to a flash drive and was going to just drop them off here. I was going to put it in the drop box but I saw a light on down the hallway and figured it would be better to leave the files with a real person.”

“Well I am a real person, so you can just-” Allison was cut off by a shrilling ringing from her phone that made both her and Stiles flinch. “Sorry I really have to take this. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Allison left Stiles standing in the office to twiddle his thumbs. If she knew anything about Stiles she would have know that this was probably the worst thing she could have done.

Not wasting any time Stiles wandered around the desk and looked at whatever it was that had been causing Allison so much strife when he had first walked in. Her desk was covered in printouts and documents most of which Stiles couldn’t make heads or tales of. There were some references to wolves though so Allison must be on the team that was using the research he had been collecting over the past few months.

On the computer screen itself though there was a video feed open. The lighting was too dim to really make out what was going on though. There was a little bit of movement but nothing that could tell Stiles what was happening in whatever location the camera was trained on. It was more that a little exasperating. Stiles was farther away from understanding what about all of this information had caused Allison to look so stressed.

There was movement out in the hallway and Stiles moved away from the desk. As he moved away he somehow caught on the headphones that were poked into the computer. He glanced down before decided not to touch them. Hopefully Allison would think that she had pulled them out on her own accidentally.

He moved to stand next the bookcase that had a number of books along with an assortment of other knick knacks and bobbles. Allison’s entire office was neat and clean, even the papers on her desk, though numerous, were stacked in neat piles that seemed to have a definite organizational structure. It was nothing like the office Stiles worked in with the teetering stacks of papers and books spread out over every available surface. It looked stifling to Stiles.

Moments later Allison walked in, glancing at Stiles who looked innocently back at her.

“So you wanted to give me the flash drive.”

“Oh yeah here it is.” Stiles pulled the drive out of his pocket and moved to hand it to Allison. His movement froze halfway through the motion when a loud animalistic groaning noise scratchily played from the speakers on Allison’s computer.

“Stiles.” Allison said almost sounding pained. “The flash drive please.”

“Right.” Stiles fumbled the drive over. “Uh awesome, thanks. I’ll see you around. Well, probably not. Uh, have a nice evening then. Don’t stay up too late. Sleep deprivation and all that.”

Stiles fled from the office his heart racing as he tried not to think too much about the noise that had played from the computer. Whatever it had been, it had sounded like it was in pain.

 

 

 


	2. Spy Movies Are Different In Real Life

  “I was about to hand the drive over and this like animal noise came from the stream she had up.” Stiles explained to Scott via webcam.

Scott, his best friend since grade school, had gone on to become a veterinarian, returning home to Beacon Hills after college to work in the small veterinary clinic owned by Dr. Deaton, an odd, yet likable man. Dr. Deaton always gave Stiles a weird feeling like the Doctor knew more about all of the things that went on in the world than the average person. He had a freaky mystic kind of vibe to him.

Stiles thanked the gods of both internet and Skype for allowing him face to face conversations with his best friend even though they lived hundreds of miles apart.

“I dunno man, you said you were researching wolves. Maybe it was just a howling or something.” Scott looked skeptical. Scott could pull his act together on a good day and he was a miracle worker when it came to helping sick animals get better, but there were some times when Stiles wondered how his friend had managed to get through high school. Probably because the two of them were a couple of losers who couldn’t even make it to first line on the lacrosse team and Stile had been able to bully Scott into doing his homework. “I mean you were researching wolves right? Wouldn’t it make sense that you were doing all of that research for someone who was working with real wolves?”

Really, Stiles really wasn’t suppose to be talking about his research work to anyone who didn’t work for Argent Research, but he trusted Scott to not blabbing about the research he did. Also it helped that Stiles hadn’t told Scott he wasn’t suppose to be telling him about his work. Scott was less likely to spill the beans about something he didn’t know was suppose to be a secret. He had a good heart, but he had absolutely zero ability to keep a secret a secret.

“Scott, I listened to over 500 hundred different recordings of wolves howling, growling and making random wolfy sounds in the last three months. that was not a wolf howling or any kind of normal wolf type sound. Besides it almost sounded like it was hurt or something.”

“You think they’re doing experiments on animals?” Scott sounded less skeptical all of a sudden. As a vet -- and a decent human being -- the thought that animals might be being hurt clearly struck a cord. Gossipy speculation was one thing, but a lead, even a wavering one, was an completely different matter.

“I don’t know man. I just a have a really bad feeling about the situation.” Stiles groaned leaning back in his chair and rubbing his hands agitatedly through his short hair.

“What’re you going to do? Please don’t say something stupid.” Scott begged. “

“Probably something stupid.” Stiles agreed nodding. Scott groaned and dropped his head to hit his desk.

 

The thing was, Stiles couldn’t do _nothing_. That desperate pained noise and the way Allison had tensed up lurked in the back of his mind, a constant nagging presence that urged him to do _something_. To add to his frustration the the more he had thought about the noise the worse he remembered it being. This wasn’t something that he was just going to be able to forget about and continue on with his life until he made some kind of effort to find out what was going.

Scott had warned him to be careful. This wasn’t breaking into the schools database to find to find a teachers address so they could send pizza and strippers and if they got in trouble it would amount to a slap on the wrists and maybe a note in their file. This was the real world where he would go to jail for a long time if he got caught snooping around. Especially if what he was snooping for turned out to be something that that Agent Research was trying to keep under wraps.

Stiles had scoffed at the warning. He liked his job and wasn’t going to do anything that was going to get him fired. Not yet anyways. Who knew what the future would bring though. Besides Scott was making it sound like some sort of dramatic actions movie where the company that Stiles worked for was actually an evil corporation bent on world domination or something like that. At worse someone in the labs was doing some kind of animal experiments that probably were borderline illegal.

It made him uncomfortable to think that Allison, who had seemed like a decent human being at first meeting, might be implicated in some kind of unsavory animal experimentation. That didn’t mean that he was just going to sit back and let thing play out though. Stiles wasn’t that kind of person.

What Stiles planned on doing was a bit of investigating. Just harmless snooping to start off with. He’d dig around in the science database a little and see what came of it. It would be like one of those spy moves except not as dangerous. He doubted Argent Research was hiding any kind of superhuman, superspy experiments or had any chemical weapons stashed away in the building.

Two weeks after he had first heard the noise from Allison’s computer and a little snooping came up with exactly nothing.

Stiles knew a decent amount of code, but he was not exactly a work class hacker. Usually he had no problem figuring out a password to get into a database to get the information he needed because most people were stupidly simplistic when it came to coming up with their password(he couldn’t believe that people still used their birthday as their password for Christ’s sake), but the people down in the science lab actually seemed to know what they were doing when they came up with their passwords. Stiles only had so many attempts to try and figure the password out before he would have to start answer questions about why he was trying to break into the science labs database. If he actually needed info from their database all he would have to do was fill out a request for an the information would just be given to him.

Something told Stiles though that if he put in a request for something that he wasn’t suppose to know existed he wasn’t going to have a very good time with the resulting questions. This was one of those things that he thought might get him fired if the wrong people found out what he was up to. That was something that he really wanted to try to avoid.

Which meant that if he wanted to find anything out he was going to have to physically go down to the science labs and see what he could find out. This would be exceptionally more risky than trying to access off-limits databases because part of Stiles job was accessing off-limits databases(he could always get access to them but he really did like trying to get his own way in. Besides sometimes there was important information in the areas that he wasn’t granted access to). Going to do snooping in person held a entire different level of risks.

There were no security guards down in the basement levels as far as Stiles knew. It wasn’t even possible to get down there unless you had five different types of clearance. Still, the chance of running into someone like he had with Allison in the first place was a possibility.

Stiles decided that if he was going to go snooping he better go with a plan. He loaded up a flash drive with his new research, myths and legends surrounding the properties of metals(he really wished he could find out who had requested some of this stuff) and unplugged the ethernet cord from his computer that connected him to the main server. He was hoping he wouldn’t meet anyone down there, but on the off chance that he did he wanted to make sure that he was prepared.

As far as snooping missions go, this one started off surprisingly well. The science lab doors opened with no problems, hissing in greeting for him. None of the offices had lights on, there was only the faint glow of the night time overhead lights softly lighting the hallway at steady intervals.

He bypassed the drop off box going over his plan in his head, which was to tell anyone that he met that he was simply in search of a bathroom. During all of his teenage years he’d learned that the simpler the lie the easier it was to maintain.

Luck really was on his side that night. The first bathroom that he passed had an “Out of Order” sign taped to it’s door. It would be more than a little suspicious if he was caught wandering around looking for a bathroom when there was one right at the front of the labs and this would no doubt strengthen his story of should he run into someone.

Further snooping resulted in Stiles realizing that there was absolutely nothing about the Science Labs that seemed even slightly out of place, weird, or sketchy. Most of the doors were locked up for the night with the exceptions of a few empty rooms, some supply closets, and one lab that was under construction. The further he walked through the labs the more ridiculous he felt. This felt less like a spy mission and more like aimlessly wandering around an office building in the middle of the night. He wasn't even sure what he should be looking for. It wasn’t like he expected there to be some kind of blinking neon sign that said “Mysterious and Incriminating Science Experiment This Way” He would be pretty suspicious of that kind of thing, anyways.

He wandered around for over 45 minutes realizing that after a certain amount of time his bathroom and flash drive alibis were pretty much shot. His plan now pretty much relied on his testimony that he had gotten lost. Considering there weren’t any maps on the walls his story might hold up. Especially considering Stiles lived in a universe where people were completely gullible and all had terrible sense of direction. Right. He was pretty much fucked if anyone found him at this point. It wasn’t even like he was getting anything out of this investigation. The science labs were suspiciously unsuspicious.

Dejectedly, he decided that there wasn’t anything he was going to find in here tonight and he might as well get out before his luck ran short and someone did catch him. A thought occurred to him when he saw a video camera trained on him from down the hallway and he wondered if there was any reason that someone would check the camera in the morning. He doubted it. The thought that someone might eventually see him wandering around though made him uneasy.

“Stiles!”

Stiles was so caught up in wondering if it was possible to somehow wipe the cameras without further incriminating himself that he didn’t realize that someone had called out his name until he had taken another three steps down the hallway.

Half of Stiles wanted to run and not look back. The other half of him realized that this would be an extremely stupid move. If he wasn’t already in trouble he certainly would be if he ran, especially considering whoever was talking to him _knew his name_. Instead he slowly turned to look at whoever it was that called out his name.

Allison was standing in a door that was cracked open, peering at Stiles anxiously.

“Oh, hey, Allison. I was just came down here to drop off some files, darn servers acting up again, and then I needed to use the bathroom but there was an out of order sign and I got lost for a little while -- these labs are just super confusing, huh? -- and now I have just realized that the tech guys never plugged my computer back to the servers to I can just skip back up stairs and do it myself and everything will be good and dan-’

“Shut up.” Allison waved her hand at him in a hushing motion. “I’ve been watching you walk around for almost an hour.

“Ah,Yeah...about that...”Stiles trailed off wondering how much trouble he had just gotten himself into. If he had to guess an amount it would probably be “a lot”.

“I need to talk to you.” Allison moved away from the door leaving it open behind her. Feeling miserable and a little sick, Stiles followed her inside.

Behind the door was a medium sized office with seven or eight monitor screens, all black and silent, against one wall and a table covered in computers and papers against the adjacent wall. On the wall opposite the blank monitors was a console that had a number of screen showing the feeds from the cameras that Stiles had been worrying about.

It looked like some kind of crazy mix between a normal control room and a secret base. Stile wondered what the blank screen usually showed. It wasn’t any of the hallways as far as he could tell. The control console seemed to have that covered. Which meant that it was probably something on this floor that was usually behind closed doors, or else it as something that was in a different part of the building altogether.

“You’re down here because of what you heard the other night right?”

Stiles contemplated lying. He’d pretty much exhausted his non-snooping excuses for being down here in the middle of the night.

“I was really lost.” Stiles offered weakly. “Like, my sense of direction is just terrible.”

“You can stop trying to make excuses. I’m not going to rat you out.” Allison told him, rolling her eyes.

“You’re not?” Stiles was floored. A smile quirked Allison’s lips like she thought Stiles was entertaining. It wasn’t condescending or men though, which was definitely different. He thought for sure he was going to packing up his desk as soon as Allison had finished talking to him. That this was going to be more of a “Stiles you're a ridiculous idiot, pack your shit and get out of here” conversation and less of a....whatever kind of conversation this seemed to be.

“So, not that I’m not grateful that you’re not going to turn me in for, uh....wandering around the labs at three in the morning, but _why_ aren’t you going to say anything? Even I find my own behavior a little suspicious.”  
“Because you seem like a good person, and I don’t know who else to trust right now. The fact that you came back down here tonight makes me think that you might be someone I can trust.” Allison sighed and sank down into a swiveling office chair. Stiles followed suit, in a chair of his own, wondering if all of the bad feelings he developed since that night two weeks ago were about to be explained.

“Uh, thanks. I think, maybe?” Stiles suddenly wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what was going on. This all felt very cloak and dagger suddenly. As much as he liked spy moves he was starting to think that they wouldn’t quite be the same thing in real life. He probably should have just stuck to his research and forgotten all about the noise he had heard come from Allison’s computer.

“Clearly there was something going on the other night and I don’t think either of us are stupid enough to think that it was anything good.” Allison explained looking as troubled as she had the first time he’d seen her hunched over her computer. “You came back down here because something about what you heard didn’t seem right, right?”

“Uh, yeah you could say that. I mean you weren’t exactly acting natural, the way you tensed up all of a sudden. There were zero, non-suspicion things going on.” Stiles shrugged and gave a weak laugh.

“Yeah, I’m not exactly an actress.” Allison grinned wryly before her face turned more serious again. “If there was something going on. Something not good. Would you do something to stop it?”

“Of course I would. If something was going on that I didn’t think was right I’d do everything I could to make sure that it was right again.” Stiles said seriously. “Even if it meant that I was doing something that could get me into trouble. I wouldn’t be able to stand it if something horrible was going on and I had the power to stop it.

Allison looked equal amounts of relieved and slightly taken aback. Probably due to the fact that Stiles had just told her, in somewhat milder words, that he had no problem breaking the law if he thought it was necessary.

She took a deep steadying breath and looked Stiles dead in the eyes.

“Stiles, what do you know about werewolves?”


	3. Like A Hollywood Horror Movie

Stiles gaped at Allison, more than half expecting her to smile and make a joke at any second. Her face was tense and serious though. She was not joking.

“Werewolves? LIke howl at the moon, men that changed into wolves, can only be hurt by silver kind of werewolves?” Stiles asked. His mind was racing. Either this was a practical joke or Allison was actually a lunatic. Allison really didn’t seem crazy, which left a third option, maybe she was telling the truth?

“So you know a lot.” Allison nodded and took a drink of her coffee.

“I mean, yeah. All of the myths and legends and stuff. Hard to escape with the vampire werewolf phase that happened a few years ago.” Stiles brushed off, even more unsettled that Allison not only wanted to know if Stiles knew about werewolves but that she seemed pleased that Stiles did know a good deal about the creatures

“They’re real.” 

“Come again?”

“Werewolves are real.”

“You know I think I must be more sleeping deprived that I thought because I could have sworn that you seemed like a logical intelligent woman when I met you the other night but I’m pretty sure you’re trying to tell me that werewolves are real.” This must have been some elaborate practical joke that someone want to play on him. He had no clue who or why but werewolves weren’t real they couldn’t be real. Except a little voice was raising itself and all he could think about was that there were so many myths about werewolves that wouldn’t it make sense of there was a grain of truth to the legends?

“They are real and I’m not crazy. Stiles, I don’t know what to do. There are things happening that aren’t...” Allison trailed off and her lips moved as she struggled to get the words out. “There are really bad things happening and I don’t know what to do to make them stop.”

“That noise that I heard the other night.” Stiles felt things started to click together in his mind. “Was that-?”

“Yes.”

On one of the computers behind Allison an alert noise went off and a message box popped onto the screen.  
  
“Shit.” She cursed and turned her chair around to read and then close the popup window and message.“I knew I should have just found you earlier instead of waiting for you to show up. Can you meet me tomorrow? Not here. 4th and Myrtle. There’s a coffee shop, Couple Cups. Meet me there?”

“Uh, yeah I guess, when-” Allison got up out of her chair and pulled Stiles up as he tried to question her.

“Two.” Allison was dragging Stiles out of the office and pushing him into the hallway. “Now get out of here.”

“Wait.” Stiles said fishing in his pocket for the flash drive. Just in case someone did look at the camera footage that wasn’t Allison he wanted there to be at least a semblance of a reason for why he would be down there that night.

“Thanks.” She flashed him a smile a too big smile as she took the drive, and her eyes glanced quickly in the direction of the camera 

“No problem.” Stiles gave a shaky laugh, making an effort to look like he was relaxed and not bordering on terrified. He wanted to ask what is going on. He didn’t. Instead he gave Allison a wavering smile and a jerky wave goodbye before fleeing from the labs as fast as possible without looking any more suspicious than he already did. Stiles didn’t think that he did a very good job.

 

\---

 

The next day Stiles found himself standing in front of Couple Cups coffee shop. It was bright and sunny outside, with only a few wispy, picturesque clouds driftingi in the sky, People were wandering around enjoying the feelin of the warm rays of the sun pouring down upon them.  The sign on the coffee shop awning, a cartoon pair of rosy cheeked, tea cups holding hands, looked cheerful and happy, inviting customers in to partake in the hot or cold beverage of their choice. 

Stiles felt like he was going to be sick.

He had fled back to his apartment last night and had laid in bed until seven trying to fall asleep. Eventually he wearily pulled himself out of the bed and turned the coffee maker on. The pot had gurgled sluggishly at him and he had seated himself down at his computer, rubbing his face trying to wake himself up. 

He pulled up all of the files that he had already accumulated on werewolves. During his research he’d collected a large amount of information. There were the myths about them. Men that changed into wolves, usually being influence by the ebb and pull of the moon. Most of the information was similar and overlapping. Almost all of the legends had commonalities. A man that could change into a wolf, vulnerability to silver and wolfsbane, the extreme difficulty it took to kill them, that getting bit by a werewolf would turn you into one.

Some legends called the werewolves the unholy offspring of hell demons that had impregnated humans and birthed monstrous children. Other spoke of curses and witchcraft, like spells gone horribly wrong and shapeshifters caught between forms. A handful spoke of wolf spirits and gods that were amiable to humans in a familiar fashion; Those made it see like being a werewolf was more a gift than curse.   
It was all maddeningly unhelpful. Stiles know didn’t which parts were true or if any of it was. Really, he couldn’t believe that he was actually considering that any of this might be true. Because really?

Werewolves? Werewolves were something out of Hollywood. A scary monster that had no control over itself that mauled unsuspecting teenagers and ignorant adults.

And yet... 

Stiles had no reason to suspect that Allison was lying to him. She didn’t seem like the kind of person who would pull something like this. She really had seemed upset by whatever it was going on. Not to mention that this was more than elaborate for a prank she would be pulling on an almost stranger.

Stiles arrived fifteen minutes early and drank a large coffee to try and help calm the frantic butterflies in his stomach that were making him feel like he was going to be ill shortly. He was about ready to bounce out of his seat by the time Allison finally walked through the door. An elderly woman gave him a knowing smile as she glanced between himself and Allison. Stiles flushed when he realized that this probably looked like a date and not a secret rendezvous in a coffee shop to discuss the fact that werewolves were real.

Allison ordered her drink and came and sat across from Stiles. There were dark circles under her eyes that she hadn’t covered up and her hair was put back in a messy bun. Stiles imagined that he was probably sporting a similar look

“So how are things?” Stiles inquired with force casualty. He was hoping Allison was going to bring up the subject of werewolves herself. Or maybe she wouldn't and Stiles had dreamed up the whole thing and this really was a date. That would be the best case scenario here, that Stiles had bumped his head and constructed some kind of bizarre reality and Allison had agreed to go on a date with him when he asked her. That wouldn't be ridiculous at all.

“I’m okay.” Allison answered quietly as she swirled a wooden stirrer through her coffee. “You?”

“Oh, you know. Fine. Except for the part where you told me werewolves are real and for some mysterious reason need my help. Except for that I’m great.” Stiles exclaimed and he could hear his voice tipping on the edge of hysterics. He took a breath to make himself calm down. So much for waiting for Allison to bring up the subject that plan had just gone down in a fiery plane crash of fail.

“I’m sorry I sprang that on you so suddenly.” Allison winced and apologized. “I was still trying to come up with a good way to approach you. And then last night you were down in the labs and I still hadn’t come up with a good way to approach you...”

“Yeah, well, It’s okay.” Stiles sighed grudgingly and gave Allison a wry grin. “I’m not really sure there is a good way to bring up that kind of thing.”

“I could have thrown you a ‘Surprise Werewolves Are Real Party!’.” Allison weakly grinned at the joke.

“It would have had to have been one hell of a party.” Stiles jokes back and he wonders how weird this situation is. He’s barely even known Allison for two weeks and they’re sitting in a cafe cracking jokes about the fact that werewolves are real. He doesn’t even know what’s going on with his life. This is even more bizarre than anything he had thought up in his spy movie type fantasies. There certainly weren’t any werewolves in those day dreams. There weren’t even any regular wolves for that matter.

“So werewolves are real then?” Stiles conceded with a shaky laugh.

“It was shocking for me too.” Allison confided. “I’ve only known about them for a couple months myself.”

“How did you find out about them?” Stiles wondered, “Did you stumble into a secret meeting or something and then had no choice but to join the ranks of the supernaturally aware?”

“My dad told me actually.” Allison said and the troubled look had found it’s way back onto her face.

“Your dad?”

“Chris Argent.”

“Argent--As in--” Stiles eyes widened to almost comical proportions.

“As in your boss, Chris Argent.” Allison nodded.

“You’re Chris Argents daughter.” Stiles spoke slowly. His brain felt like it was going into overdrive as he tried to process what that entailed for the future. He really needed to get more sleep. “Does your dad know something about what’s going on. Well probably if he was the one who told you about them. Wait, hold on a second. I don’t even know what’s going on. What is going on?”

“You move fast don’t you?”Allison observed.

“Sorry, it’s a problem.”

“No it’s fine. It just takes a bit getting used to.” Allison gave him a small smile. “This...this is going to be hard to explain. I’m still not sure about all of what going on. There’s still a lot that I’m trying to work out for myself.”

“I’ll do my best to keep from butting in and making you jump track.” Stiles promised, he pushes his coffee away across the table. “I should also probably stop drinking this.”

Allison gave him another smile, this one reached her eyes. Stiles didn’t know where she was keeping all of those smiles Stiles had no problem cracking inappropriate jokes in stressful situations but he didn’t have the ability to throw sincere smiles around like she was.

“Thanks.” And then she began her story.

“When I was about ten my grandfathered offered my dad a position in the upper divisions of Argent Research Network. We moved around a lot during the time before that and I was home schooled. My mom thought it would be a good idea for me to have some stability in my life, and be around more kids my own age, so my dad agree to take the job and we moved into a house.

I was sent to a private school. My grandfather picked it out and paid for the whole thing. It was good and bad in it’s own ways. They had a very inclusive curriculum, far wider than what public schools offer. It was a crazy amount of work both academic and extracurricular. My grades were more than decent and my grandfather and father insisted that I take up either shooting or archery. I chose archery. It might seem odd that I’m telling you this now but it will make more sense later. I went to college after that, and graduated with my degree.

Right out of college my grandfather offered me an interview for an internship. He made it clear that I wasn’t going to be given preferential treatment just because I was family. I did get the job though, working as research intern, and then I was later promoted to full time as a research tech.”

Stiles cut in. “That’s how I was hired. Intern and then tech!”

Allison nodded. “ My grandfather doesn’t hire anyone permanently unless he thinks their exceptional in some way. He only wants the best of the best. You must have showed some pretty promising work for him to hire you on full time so quickly.”

Stiles was silent feeling slightly embarrassed. He knew he was good at him job but the way Allison was talking about it made him feel like he was some kind of genius or something. Allison took his silence as an indicator to go on with her story.

“It was about two months ago when my dad told me there was something that he wanted to tell me. He said there was more to our family that I would ever imagine. There was a reason that they’d enrolled me into a fancy school that was so much more rigorous than a normal school. They wanted me to be able to take care of myself when I was of age. He told me that my family were hunters. As in monster hunters.”

“Wait, monster hunters. You make it sound like there’s more out there than werewolves.” Stiles frowned and his stomach churned uneasily. he was just adjusting to the idea that one mythical creature was real and now Allison was telling him that there were more?

“Um, yes. There are more. A lot more.” 

“Oh ,fantastic. You know what, why don’t you just keep that information to yourself for the time being.” Stiles took a deep breath. What was important right now was what Allison needed to tell him. Explanations on the various monsters in the world could wait until al later time. “Continue on with your store please.”

“I didn’t believe what he was telling me at first. Why would I? Who would believe that monsters were real let alone that my whole family has been hunting them since before I was even born. That’s why we moved around so much when I was little. We were following the monsters. But then he showed me the pictures and the books. There was just so much. It was crazy. I thought he was trying to pull some kind of joke on me.

And then about a month ago my grandfather and him approached me saying that they thought they were close to catching a werewolf. They were so excited. 

They had a plan years ago, my aunt Kate was helping them, but it went wrong and they ended up killing a bunch of the werewolves and the couple that didn’t die got away before they were able to catch them.

They’d found one of them and were close to catching it.

A week later after they told me that they were close to catching the wolf, my dad came to me and was ecstatic. They’d caught it and not only that he was alive and healthy. 

Grandfather brought me to see it. They brought me to see him.”

Allison stopped and took deep breath through her nose. her eyebrows were furrowed and her lips were in a tight line as her finger gripped her ceramic coffee mug so hard that her were practically white. It was lucky that she wasn’t holding a paper cup. It would have crumpled under the amount of force she was squeezing with.

“He was tied down. There were chains around his arms and legs and middle. And there was a collar wrapped around his neck like he was some kind of animal. He didn’t look like a monster. He just looked like a regular person.

Grandpa told me he was going to show me just how dangerous these kind of monsters could be. He pulled out a knife explaining that in order for a knife to do any kind of permanent damage a blade would have to be silver, but a sharp knife would be better than nothing in a dire situation.

It didn’t click what he was going to do until he walked over to where the man was chained down and dragged the blade down his arm. The werewolf changed almost suddenly and he let out this howl. His eyes went red and fur sprouted on his face as it changed to something that was more animal than human. 

No one  was expecting him to snap the chains that were holding him down on the table. he did though, somehow, even though they were metal and there was no way an ordinary person would have had a chance to bend them let alone snape them completely. The werewolf moved so fast the second he broke free. He had me pinned against the wall before anyone even moved.

I thought I was dead. His eyes were glowing red and I could see his fang and and feel his claws just barely touching my neck but he didn’t do anything, not to hurt me anyways. He just spoke.  ‘Help me.”  he said. And then Dad and the hunters on guard outside the room stormed in and shot him with something that made him drop like a stone.

Dad was furious after. He told Grandpa it was stupid for him to pull something like that, that I could have died. Grandpa should have known that baiting a werewolf like that was bound to make him transform and that both of them knew that they didn’t have the proper restraints for him. They kept calling him it. Like he was just some kind of animal to them.

All I could think about was that he had had his claws around my neck. it wouldn’t have been hard for him to kill me. He had no reason not to and he didn’t. He didn’t even hurt me, just asked for help.

I told them I was okay, after. That he hadn’t done anything to me, not even a scratch. They still made sure to check me over saying they couldn’t risk if he had done something to me. 

The other hunters chained the werewolf back down after that, using more chains and commenting on how they could just keep him sedated for now. Grandfather agreed that it would be a good idea, especially until they could get silver chains

After they made sure that I was okay, that he hadn’t scratched or bitten or anything else that they were worried about, they told me what my new assignment was going to be. I was going to be in charge of organizing all of the data that the ‘scientist’ for the assignment gathered. Now that I knew the secret my of my family I was going to be included in the more delicate matter

He was healing a broken femur the night you were in my office. Earlier in the day he had tried to escape and the guards had caught him. The hunter who brought me the report was chuckling when he told me what had happened. Like he thought the whole thing was funny . I knew what was going on wasn’t right before,. I didn’t know what to do. I knew I had to do something though. ” Allison finally looked up at Stiles.

Stiles’ mouth was dry and his mind was racing faster than he could deal with. There were too many thoughts bouncing around his head, all vying for his attention reluctant to stay still with too much caffeine and too little sleep

“This is a lot to take in.” Stiles managed to get get out after a minute.

“I know it is. I understand if you don’t want to get involved. It’s not going to be safe. The opposite probably.” Allison assured. She sounded tired but fierce. This was something that, like Stiles, she wasn’t going to just let drop and try to forget about.

“You don’t think he’s dangerous?” Stiles questioned, which was a stupid question because of course anyone who could turn into a wolf with fangs and claws was dangerous. Allison seemed to understand what he was getting at though. He wanted to know if it really was a good idea to try and rescue a werewolf. That they wouldn’t be killed in the process.

“He didn’t seem dangerous. He had the chance to kill me and he didn’t take it. I don’t know what other idea I can get form that.” Allison shrugged and lifted her hands helplessly in front of her.

“Okay so what are we going to do?” Stiles asked, because his mind had been made up pretty much since he learned that Allison needed help. This wasn’t the kind of thing he ever thought he’d be helping with but it wasn’t a deal breaker for him.

“You’re going to help me?” Allison asked sounding surprised that Stiles had agreed so quickly.

‘It sounds to me me like an innocent person...er werewolf, is being hurt. I don’t think I can just stand by and let that happen. If you think there’s something we can do about this then I’m one-hundred percent behind you.”

“Thank you, Stiles.” Allison said voice brimming with gratefulness. She looked more relaxed at that moment that any other time since he’d met her. Stiles on the other hand could feel the tension building through his body as he thought about the monumental task he had just agreed to assist with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, that was a longer chapter but I'm not sure how I feel about it. Nano's frying my brain right now so sorry if I missed anything glaringly terrible. I totally wouldn't say no if anyone wanted to offer up some feedback~


	4. Probably the Worst Spy Ever

Stiles and Alison left the coffee shop with an agreement that they would be in touch to make time to brainstorm a more concrete plan. Both of them were nervous about spending too much time together. It would also be more than a little suspicious if someone overheard them making plans to break a werewolf out of a holding cell. Stiles was pretty sure it was mostly paranoia and no one actually suspected them of anything because most people didn’t think that werewolves were a real thing. On the other hand erroring on the side of caution couldn’t hurt either.

Stiles was sitting at his desk typing up a list of spy moves--there had to be some good tips in them he imagined--when  he realized that there was someone standing behind him. He tensed up, when the person began to speak.

“Don’t forget Spies Like Us. It’s a classic.”

Stiles attempted not to have a panic attack. He turned slowly in his chair. Chris Argent was standing behind him with his hands in his pockets looking good natured and relaxed.

“Uh, Mr. Argent, Sir. It’s nice to see you. Can I help you with something?” Stiles was very proud that he managed not to throw up during when speaking. Argent was the last person that he wanted to be speaking to at this moment.

“Well, Stilinski, it has come to my attention that you and my daughter know each other.”

Stiles was pretty sure that something terrible was going to happen at that point. Somehow Argent had discovered his and Allison’s plans ( or at least their plan to make a plan). Stiles was about to to be spirited away never to be heard from again and Allison would be sent away to exile and a werewolf was going to be used as a lab experiment until there was no more use for him. He gripped the arms of his chair and tried to think of any kind of possible escape route-

“I’m just going to come outright and say it. Stilinkski-”

The chances of him getting out the front door before Arget could call security on him were slim but slim was better than none. He shifted in his chair ready to make a break for it as soon as he saw a good enough opening.

“What are your intentions towards my daughter?”

Stiles thoughts of how he was going to escape came to a grinding halt.

Whoever was in charge of the universe obvious had a very sick and twisted sense of humor. Because how else would that explain first the appearance of werewolves and second the fact that his boss, Chris Argent, seemed to think that Stiles seemed to have romantic inclinations towards Allison. Not that Allison wasn't a lovely individual, but it was just so far from the truth at the moment that it wasn't even funny.

"My intentions?" Stiles repeated and cringed inwardly at how stupid he sounded.

"I want to know how serious you are about Allison." Chris Argent said. He still seemed to be good natured but at the same time Stiles could swear that there was an almost murderous glint in the other man's eyes. It oddly enough reminded him of how his dad had acted whenever he had talked about a potential romantic interest. Encouraging and extremely overprotective. "You seem like a smart boy. Obviously you wouldn't be working here if you were but I'm not saying your perfect. Far from it in fact. Right off the bat I can tell that you could use with hitting the gym."

"Uh." Stiles managed to get out still not sure what his part in the conversation was suppose to be. Making a break for it didn’t seem like a bad idea again. He couldn’t exactly tell Argent that no, he was not dating Allison and they've actually just had a secret meeting to discuss the fact that there was a werewolf being held captive and somehow they were going to try and free him.

"Not that Allison needs a man to protect her. My daughter would have no problem protecting herself from the wrong type of people. We've made sure of that." And yeah that was definitely a threat in Chris Argent's voice. Stiles was suddenly struck by the absurdity that the Argents just seem to be a really smiley bunch. In Allison's case they were mostly sweet and comforting smiles while in Argent's case they hint at a potential murder lurking behind a set of overly pleasant smile. “I would expect any potential suitor of hers to be able to hold his own and also to protect her if it was necessary. There are some bad sorts in this world Stilinski.”

"My intentions towards Allison..." Stiles began and paused for a minute when he thought about how transparent Argent was being. It was like he was practically telling Stiles there were werewolves lurking out there. Or maybe he was just reading into the conversation too much because he knew what Chris Argent did on the side of office work. He took a little camling breath and tried not to think about that.  "Allison is great. She seems really smart and she’s more than pretty and she's got a great smile."

Fuck that sounded like the lamest fucking thing ever. There was no way that Arget was going to think that he was serious. He sounded like a middle schooler denying a crush. Argent was looking at him and Stiles really just wished he would stop smiling now. It had gone past intimidating and was now just bordering on creepy territory. Stiles wished they could just get to the part where the other man called him a lying creep and forbid him from ever seeing Allison again or fired him or did whatever his creeping smile was implying he was going to do.

"Great. I just want to let you know that if you ever do anything to hurt her. Anything at all, well, lets just say you won't be in a happy place."

"Uh, got it." Huh that was surprisingly painless. S

"Great! Keep up the good work Stilinski!" Chris Argent slapped him on the back good naturedly like they were actually buddies and not like he was the man just approached Stiles out of the blue and threateningly interrogated about Stiles nonexsistent relationship with his daughter with a serial killer’s smile for the past ten minutes. “I’ve got some work myself to get to.”

Argent sauntered out of the room and Stiles started to let out a breath freezing when the man stuck his head back into the lab. Stiles heart couldn’t take much more of this.

“Oh and Stilinski, we should get together for lunch sometime soon. I’d love to talk more with you.”

Stiles nodded not trusting himself to speak. His boss left and Stiles didn’t even begin to relax until he’d heard Argent’s footstep disappear down the hall and the sound of door closing reached his ears. Then Stiles breathed a huge sigh and groaned as he slumped down into his chair. Something told him that wasn’t the worst of what he's going to have to deal with in the near future.

  
\---  
  
Stiles had come to the very sound conclusion that he had no clue what they were going to do about the werewolf.

Well, that's not entirely true. He had the vague idea that they need to get the werewolf out of the Argent Labs and somewhere safe. What he didn’t know is how they were ever going to manage to do that. He didn’t even know where the werewolf was being held. He doubted it was on the main science labs floor and more likely was down on one of the basement levels of the complex.

Before the knowledge that there was a werewolf being held in the building Stiles had assumed that most of the lower levels were used for old files and rubber band storage and whatnot. It would make sense that if someone was going to keep a werewolf locked up in a corporate building they would want to make sure that it was locked up somewhere where ordinary people weren't going to just accidentally wander into a holding/torture chamber.

He'd have to remember to ask Allison the next time they met. Which if Chris Argent thought they were dating might actually be able to be sooner than later. They could very well meet under the assumption that they were going out on a date. Stiles wasn’t sure that dealing with overprotective, father Chris Argent was likely to be any easier than dealing with a Chris Argent that suspected him of stealing a werewolf but it was better than nothing at this point.  He'd need to run the situation past Allison and hope that her father didn't have words with her before then. That would really blow their cover if she denied everything before the plan was even off the ground. Not to mention it would just up the suspicion level on Stile’s end. He'd probably have to deal with round two of what are your intentions towards my daughter. Which would be a whole different level of problematic because he really didn't think he'd have a good reason that wasn't secret rendezvous to abduct kidnapped werewolf.

This would have been solved he'd thought to ask Allison for her cell phone number. In which case he could have just texted her and gave her a heads up on their current predicament. Even in Allison had just dropped a life altering bomb on him he kicking himself for not getting her contact information earlier. He was starting to think that he would make a really, really crappy spy.

“Stiles, why does my dad think we’re dating?” Allison asked when she stalked into his office an hour after her father had talked to him.

“I need your phone number,” Stiles responded immediately holding his hand out expectantly. He’d answer Allison’s question eventually but he really wanted to get her number before they parted again today. Allison huffed but surrendered her phone to Stiles who began to punch in his number sending a text to himself so he’d have here. “I really do not want to deal with anymore surprises like your father showing up in my office.

“Stiles,” Allison pressed and he could tell she was trying to get him to answer her question. He’d get there eventually but his brain was buzzing in a hundred different directions from too much coffee and too little sleep. Dealing with Argent and coming up an idea of how to break a werewolf out a holding cell without any information about said holding cell was pretty much impossible was clearly taking his mind to task. He needed more details, hopefully details that Allison would be able to give him. Some sleep wouldn't be amiss either.

“Your dad stopped by here earlier. He was pretty obviously suspicious about something.” Stiles said and lowered his voice, “He just wasn’t suspicious about the right thing. I don’t know how but I guess he somehow knew about our meetings at the coffee shop. We need to be more careful.”

“We should meet somewhere else. It was stupid of me to pick somewhere so close to work.” Allison looked to be on the verge of panic. Stiles waved his hand at her in what he felt was a “calm down and don’t freak” out kind of way.

“Chill. I don’t think we’re in any trouble. Well, not you anyways. I think your dad might be planning something for me. He was acting a little creepy when he came by to talk to me.” Stiles muttered.

“He can be a little over protective,” Allison said frowning.

“Yeah I kinda gathered as much, but this whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing might actually be a good idea. It’d give us a cover for why we keep meeting.”

“You really think it’s a good idea?”

“Well, I mean it’s not a bad idea. I wouldn’t really call it good either though,” Stiles shrugged. “It’ll require some acting on both of our parts. Your dad wouldn’t probably expect to see...physical affections of sorts. It wouldn't have to be too much though, I don’t think, to be convincing.”

Allison chewed on her bottom lip and looking contemplative as she weighed the situation. After a moment she spoke.

“I think that it’s the best we have to work with. Especially if my dad already thinks we’re together. It’ll look suspicious if both of us suddenly start denying anything is going on.

“Yeah that’s pretty much what I thought,” Stiles agreed. “Glad we’ve settled that. Hey before you leave, I need more info about our furry friend. Anything you can give me would be good. Maps, security detail, anything the more info the better.”

“Maps shouldn’t be a problem. Security might a bit more difficult. I’ve got access to the control room but the security detail is kept in my dad’s office.” Allison frowned while she spoke.

“The more we have to work with the easier this will be. Not that this is going to be anywhere near the realm of easy but the more things we can plan for the less chance that something will go wrong.” Stiles was a plans kind of guy. And this was definitely the kind of situation where a plan was going to be necessary. Charging in would be suicide, especially considered he didn’t even know where they would be charging into at that point. “Also we need to figure out where we’re going to take him when we do get him out.”

“Not my house, when he goes missing there’s no way that I’m not going to be under suspect.”

“Which bring up another point. I don’t see many ways for this to go down without one or both of us being found out.” Stiles had been thinking about that for a while now on top of everything else. He was pretty sure that they were doing the right thing. There was a good chance that he’d be out of a job when this was all done though and Allison was defying her own family. That couldn’t be easy for her. Stiles could get another job but it wasn’t like Allison could just find herself a new family. “This might not tour out too well, on your end especially, if things go south.”

A hard look came over Allison’s face. Stiles had not been expecting that reaction.

“I think it’s already clear that me and my family have some issues where we aren’t exactly seeing eye to eye. This is just one thing. I don’t really want to think about the other things that they haven’t told me yet, because I’m pretty sure this isn’t the worse thing and I really don’t want to think about that right now. Lets focus on this and the rest can come later.”

Stiles nodded. “If you’re sure then that might make it easier in the long-”

He cut off mid sentence as someone wandered past the lab at that moment and Stiles suddenly realizes how utterly brain dead they had just been having this conversation in the middle of the day where anyone could have been listening to them. Yeah, pretty much the worst spy ever.

Allison’s phone when off and she glanced at it and her face crumpled as she read an email.

“It’s a review of my status report about....” She trailed off likely realizing what Stiles had about how stupid they were being. “My grandfather’s pleased with our progress and wants to to move ahead to the next stage and begin more thorough experimentation by the end of the week.”

“What does that mean?” Stiles really didn't like the sound of that. They’re already breaking his bones. What comes next?  
“It means we have til the end of the week before they start using the research you’ve gathered to find a more permanent way of dealing with him.” Allison said grimly.

Stiles was right. He really did not like the sound of that.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty much the worst ever. I'm super sorry this took almost two months to get up and I'm pretty sure it's terrible. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long and will actually be kind of good.


	5. It's a Small World After All

Stiles was a mess all day Tuesday. They had a week to break a werewolf out of top secret facility located eight stories underground. Failure meant death for one if not two of the people involved and very possibly three. Stiles didn't like his chances of getting out of the situation alive if he was caught. Allison may be a nice girl with a level head on her shoulders but as far as he was concerned the senior Argents were bat shit crazy. He wasn't even sure that Allison would be okay if they were caught and she was Chris Argent's _daughter_. Every rumor and whisper of the Argent's ruthlessness when dealing with completion lurked just at the back of his mind. Some of them weren't even rumors. There was a reason Argent Research Network was number one in it's field.

He was counting the minutes of the last three hours of his shift when Allison sent him a text.

**Bringing a friend. Might be a little late.**

That opened up a whole new can of worries for Stiles and turned his already unproductive day into a pretty much useless one. Way Allison actually bringing a friend or was she trying to warn him about something? Had something happened to blow their cover? Who was the person that she was going to bring?

After a few second of panic where he wondered if he should just bail immediately and run from the building as fast as he could or make a slow strategic exit the logical side of his brain started back up again.

It could be a warning, but he had the feeling that if someone knew what they were up to, they would've been stopped right in their tracks and at the very least had a stern talking to and at the very most already be dead and wiped from the face of the planet. If it was a warning it wasn't necessarily one that cover had been blown.

**Who is it?** He had asked her back and she'd only responded with, **A friend from work. Don't worry : )** Which had done absolutely nothing to keep him from worrying or his brain from traveling in a hundred possible directions trying to think of any and every possible reason Allison would be bringing someone with her to what everyone else assumed was a date and what they knew was actually a secret werewolf rescue meeting. Her smiley face at the end of the message did nothing to reassure him.

It bothered him that she was bringing another person into this without asking him. If she was being coerced, well he couldn't really blame her, but he thought that she might have asked him if they were going to be bring more people in on this. No matter how helpful this other person might be, the more people that knew what was going on the greater the chances were that someone was going to find out about what was going on. Stiles had the feeling that this could get really messy given the chance.

The thought of a man, werewolf, chained deep underground and already being tortured made him inwardly wince. This was already getting messy. The more he thought about it the less likely it seemed they were going to get out of this unscathed. It was impossible really so he tried not to think about it.

The six hours after receiving Allison's text message passed by with excruciating slowness. A quarter til their meeting time, Stiles felt that he had gone right from a jittery mess fueled by too much caffeine, too much stress, and too little sleep, to almost completely calm. He'd given so many fucks he'd just stopped. As much as he was worried about their meeting tonight and what was going to happen in the next week, worrying about it was only going to make it harder to think and plan what they needed to do.

He waited slumped on his couch, and watched minutes on the clock tick by while some dumb reality TV show played in the background and seven o'clock came and went. At fifteen after worry began to worm it's way back into the front of his emotions and at half past seven he was sitting ramrod on the couch trying to focus as hard as he could on a sixteen year old girl shriek about how her parents had ruined her life by buying the wrong car.

His phone buzzed on the coffee table and he jump half a foot off the couch and would deny to anyone ever that he had been freaked out enough that he actually let out a small startled shriek. He forced himself to relax and looked at the phone, telling himself that the chances of the Argents bursting into his apartment guns blaring was wildly implausible.

The text was from Allison. And he didn't have to fight for calm so much after he read it.

**I'll be there in 5 min**

Five minutes later, during which Stiles had spent the whole time looking between the curtain of his apartment window, Allison's sleek, shiny, silver Mercedes Benz had pulled up. There were some definite perks to being the daughter of a multimillion dollar business CEO. She got out and someone else got out on the passenger's side. In the darkness outside he couldn't tell who it was, only that they had blonde hair and a lot of it.

He moved away from the windows so it didn't look like he was some kind of paranoid weirdo and waited a couple seconds to what felt like a normal amount of time it would take someone to answer a door before he opened it for Allison.

“Sorry I'm so late,” She apologized, “I had some last minute things at work I needed to put together.”

“Who did you bring?” Stiles demanded, failing at achieving any level of tactfulness. “Why didn't you talk to me first?”

“Oh, um, can we come inside? I'll explain it all to you,” Allison said with a wince and then gave a kind of tense smile to the woman standing slightly behind her. “Stiles, this is Lydia.”

Stiles finally looked at the woman that Allison had brought with her.

“ _Lydia_?”

“Long time no see, Stilinski.” Lydia smirked back at him. “You gonna let us in or are we gonna have to plan this shindig on your doorstep.”

Stiles jaw seemed to have lost the ability to close his mouth and he moved out of the way to let Allison and Lydia step into his apartment.

Lydia was in his apartment. The world was too small.

“Lydia, what are you doing here?” Stiles gaped staring at the girl he'd had a crush on all four years of high school. He never thought he would see her again after they'd graduated and yet there she was standing in his tiny little apartment with dishes in the sink that he hadn't vacuumed in over a week and hadn't dusted in probably four times as long. Allison had definitely betrayed him.

“You could have warned me!” Stiles said turning to look accusingly at Allison.

“You two know each other?” Allison said in bewilderment.

Lydia laughed a little like she was completely tickled by the situation and it wasn't bizarre as all get up. Stiles wondered if maybe they really are in a spy movie? This was the kind of thing that happens in a movie wasn't it?

“Stilinski had this adorable crush on me in high school.” Lydia giggled setting herself down on the couch and crossed one leg daintily over the other.

“Haha, yeah,” Stiles laughed forcefully. “And you resolutely made me aware that there was no way that you would ever return any affection that I gave you.”

“Oh no. This isn't going to work is it?” Allison said looking back and forth between the other two.

“I don't know.” Lydia said arching an eyebrow, the good humor in her expression suddenly looking dangerous and not very girly. “Is this going to work, Stilinski?”

“Maybe you should explain why Lydia is even here in the first place.” Stiles sighed and dropped himself into the one stand alone chair in the room. Allison could sit next to Lydia if she wanted to sit down. She had said they were 'friends” anyways.

“Miss Argent has been up to something that her daddy would think is no good,” Lydia said with a wry smile. “Something that I'm fairly certain would have the both of you in a great deal of trouble if he were to find out. You've been corrupting his little girl, Stiles.”

Stiles thought he understood what Lydia was getting at and went for the chance of a cover up.

“Argent knows were dating,” Stiles said. Lydia rolled her eyes and huffed like she was annoyed.

“I don't know what you thought about me in high school Stilinski but I'm not an idiot. I know there's something going on in the Argent Labs. Something dangerous and illegal.” Lydia said, “Something to do with...well, furry creatures, to put it lightly. You two haven't been nearly careful enough. Do you know how many times I've already covered for your asses?”

“You've been covering our asses? When?” Stiles demanded, “And why?”

“Fuck me Stilinski, I've been making sure you haven't wounded up dead and you're mad at me. That's some kind of gratitude.” Lydia sniffs like she's hurt. “Clearing security cameras, wiping audio tapes, heading off strange men that would kill you...I thought you liked me.”

those had all been things that Stiles had been worried about the past couple of weeks. Ever since his little one night investigation in the science labs. He thought they had just been getting off easy so far and avoiding any kind of suspicion. He should have known better than that. It wasn't just luck that they hadn't been caught yet.

“Shit. I still don't understand why you're here.” Stiles said rubbing a hand across his bristly hair.

Lydia huffed again.

“You need to be more careful, Stilinski. Argent Research is prepared for a greater deal than a scrawny research aid trying to break a werewolf out of solitary confinement.” She snaps. “I was going to just stand by and wait but you two are going to wind up dead if I don't help you.”

“Excuse me,” Allison interrupted, “We've been doing just fine so far, Lydia. You may be my best friend but that doesn't mean you can just start insulting us.”

“Best friend?” Stiles croaked, and he's starting to think that he may need to lay off the coffee and switch to the bottle of vodka he keeps around for when he's feeling exceptionally whiny and lonely.

“You never could pay attention to one line of thought for very long could you?” Lydia said and continued to speak over his sputters of denial. “There's a world outside of Beacon Hills you know. Allison is one of the reasons I moved here in the first place. We've know each other since high school. They say internet friends aren't real but she's more real that any friend I ever had in school.”

“Lydia!” Allison interrupted and she was blushing a little.

“Well it's true.” Lydia simpered and patted Allison on the leg. “Even if you aren't as smart as I am. It's okay, most people aren't.”

“Oh my god, you are such a bitch sometimes.” Allison snapped and pushed her friends hand away.

“This isn't going to work is it?” Stiles said sadly, clearly mimicking Allison's early statement.

“Ha ha ha.” Lydia said. “That was so funny I forgot to laugh.”

“You did laugh though,” Stiles pointed out.

“Stilinski, I will hurt you. Don't think I won't” Lydia said with a sweet smile. It made Stiles uncomfortable. He couldn't count the number of times he'd seen her use that smile on guys in high school who wouldn't take no for an answer. They always stopped soon after. That pretty blonde head and sweet smile always made everyone forget that she wasn't a silly bimbo until they were laying on there back seeing starts and trying to figure out how to get air back into their lungs.

“Guys stop!” Allison interrupted. “Both of you be nice! I didn't bring Lydia along so you two could just trade petty comments and act all passive aggressive to each other all night.”

“Why did you bring her?” Stiles asked. “Did she blackmail you or something.”

Lydia smiled sharply(Stiles was quickly realizing she had a number of different smiles at her disposal. No wonder she was able to get whatever she wanted back in school.) Allison looked suitably incriminated.

“I wasn't about to let my best friend go and get herself killed.”

“Great awesome.” Stiles groaned. “Okay, so we've got introductions over. We all know why we're here. Can we get to the planning already? We are kind of on a schedule.”

“First smart thing you've said all night.” Lydia said and Stiles had to fight the urge to get up and strangle her. He wasn't sure what he saw in her in high school, she had to be one of the most infuriating people he had ever met.

Unfortunately as infuriating as she was, Lydia was insanely smart. Stiles had always know that but some how it always seemed to float to the back of his mind when she was actually around him because she was really, really hot. Which in hindsight, Stiles was sure that she had been working on purpose. Everyone underestimated her and she waltzed out of high school valedictorian. Having her around to help them spring the werewolf prisoner was going to be helpful in ways that Stiles could only be happy about. Well, mostly happy anyways.

As well as Allison, Lydia worked for Argent Research, which she pointed out to Stiles like somehow he could have missed that fact earlier in the conversation when she was was explaining how she had already helped them. He was never going be blinded by her hotness again, especially not when he had at least a week more of her to put up with at this rate.

On the front of making plans to get the werewolf out though, she was a wealth of information and as the night went on it became more and more obvious that there was no way Stiles and Allison would have been able to spring wolf guy on their own.

“Even with me, and you two, this isn't going to be easy. I may have to bring in some more people to help.” Lydia said after discussing the plans and ideas that Stiles and Allison had already put together. Unfortunately that wasn't a whole lot. Lydia hadn't seemed very surprised by that. It irk Stiles that she seemed so accepting of their less than flushed out plans. It wasn't like they had a lot to work with at the moment. She already seemed certain that she would be able to do much better.

“Wait, more people?” Stiles said, frowning and sitting back in his chair. “The only reason that I think you should be here is because we need you. I don't know if I feel comfortable bringing more people into this mess. I want to save the guy but not if it means that other people are going to get hurt in the process.”

“How very noble of you.” Lydia sighed like she was explaining something to a child. He almost wished she would throw on her caring naive girl act again, it might have been more bearable than dealing with Lydia the Sage Woman. “This isn't just involving you, though. There are other people that have a say in what's going on to. There are other people who should be made aware of what's going on as well, even if they aren't gong to have an active part in what we plan on doing.”

“Dude, what are you even talking about.”

“This whole situation isn't revolving around you and your stupid little spy mission, Stilinski, you're not the only one who's being effected by what's going on. I already told you, the worlds bigger than Beacon Hills.”

“I know that,” Stiles spat, mental and physical exhaustion dwindling his ability to deal with the blonde almost negligible. Especially, when he was trying to push away the idea that maybe she was right and he had been too caught up in the idea that this whole situation was his to take care of.

“Then act like it. Derek Hale has family and friends. I imagine they would be even happy than you to get him out of the hands of the Argents.”

“Oh my god how do you know so much about the wolf dude?” Stiles asked because Lydia was smart but research was Stiles _thing_ and she was going and completely blowing him out of the water on this. He made his living off finding things out and somehow during the past few days and this bizarre stressful situation he was letting his game slip. He hadn't really been researching anything about the guy they were suppose to be rescuing. He hadn't even really thought about it if he was going to be honest. And actually if he really was going to be honest he had been thinking way more about how his life was turning into a spy movie and what would happen to his own skin if this ship capsized.

“Derek's family lives in Beacon Hills. I made it a point to know who they were after what happened to them.”

“What the fuck. You keep saying the worlds bigger than Beacon Hills but it sounds like the whole population just went relocated.” Stiles wondered and what did she mean “after what had happened to them.” This whole situation was turning into those 'there's more beneath the surface than he originally knew about' kind of situations and it was making him antsy not knowing everything that was going on.

“Hardly,” Lydia scoffed. “The Hales still live in Beacon hills, once again, that's besides the point. I think we should let Derek's family know that we know where he is. I know one their pack is working at Argent Research already. They suspected he was being held here but they couldn't find any evidence to support the hunch. We were working on getting farther inside before Allison went and was called into working in her family's business.”

“Ah yes, the family business of kidnapping supernatural creatures and torturing them until you could find out what made them tick. And then stop ticking. Such a time honored profession.” Stiles snorted and immediately felt bad when Allison clearly looked hurt by his comment. Even if they were a bunch of lunatics the Argents were still her family and Stiles knew how much family could mean to someone. Up until a little while ago, she hadn't even known this side to them and she was probably having to deal with more than any of them right now. Well with the exception of the tortured werewolf guy but they were working on that problem now.

“Bravo, Stilinski, way to make a girl feel special,” Lydia said glaring at Stiles.

“Sorry.” He apologized with a grimace, “If it helps I don't think your crazy enough to do the things your family is doing.”

“I think you should just stop trying,” Allison said shortly. “I already told you I'm dealing with this. Lets just stop talking about my family, please.”

Stiles refrained from pointing out that would be hard to do when they were talking about how to avoid the Argents to preform their rescue mission. He knew what she meant.

Unfortunately, because they didn't have a lot of information, their planning mostly consisted of trading the very little information that they did have and then making various half formed plans that would need more information before they could be really considered plans.

Allison's phone vibrated and she glanced at it making a quiet upset noise and then flushing in what was clearly irritation.

“It's my dad. He must think that I'm still a teenager or something because this is ridiculous. He's reminding me I have work tomorrow.” she huffed and roughly tapped a message into her phone before throwing it back into her bag in disgust.

“We still need to find somewhere to put him once we get him out. A disguise as well.” Lydia said thoughtfully, jotting a note down on yellow legal pad she had pulled out some time ago. “It would be stupid to get him out only to have the Argents grabbing him right back again because we didn't keep him safe enough.”

Another vibrating noise came from Allison's bag and she looked resolutely like she was going to ignore it.

“If you're trying to stay on good terms with your father you may want to answer that,” Lydia pointing out scratching something out and making another note.

“He wants me home,” Allison snapped and Lydia clicked her pen closed.

“Well then we better get Cinderella home before midnight.” She said. “We've got an okay start for now. It's going to take some time to find out some of the things we need and I’m going to contact some people.”

“Okay so that's what you're doing, what about the rest of us?” Stiles pointed out.

Lydia sighed another long suffering sigh. It seemed she was fed up with all of this for the evening as well.

“Just keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth closed. Don’t do anything that might be suspicious. We all need to be on as good of terms with the Argents as possible.” Lydia said picking up her bag and standing. “I'll be in touch with you, or more likely Allison, in the next day or so. On the chance that I'm not, please refrain from doing anything stupid?”

“Yeah okay fine,” Stiles snapped back, “Aren't you two leaving already?”

“I'll see you tomorrow Stiles,” Allison said rolling her eyes at the two.

After Allison and Lydia had pulled away Stiles flopped face down onto his couch and satisfied himself in a long few seconds of no thinking.

On the table Stiles phone buzzed, he assumed it was an alert he had set telling him that he had to be up for work in eight hours and to get his ass into bed if he wasn't already. It was only 11 though and Stiles grabbed the phone to see that he had a text message. It was from Scott.

**Yo man guess what! I'm going to be coming up to visit at the end of the week!**

Stiles groaned and smashed his face back into the couch cushions. One way or another he was pretty sure he wasn't going to make it through the next week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kind of forgot about this story, accidentally. This chapter's longer than all the others but it's kinda slow so sorry about that. I do have a plan for the next chapter already though that includes ~ACTION~


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